


The Ties That Bind

by Merkwerkee



Category: Void Jumpers (Web Series)
Genre: Character Death, Goodbyes, Pyrrhic Victory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:34:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29224770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merkwerkee/pseuds/Merkwerkee
Summary: More than a thousand years ago, five Summoners came to put a stop to the evil machinations of Slakta the Insidious. It takes everything that have, and even then it almost isn't enough.
Relationships: Horace - Relationship, Sly Tait





	The Ties That Bind

Tait grimaced as she Void-negated another bolt of the sickly green-yellow Blightning Slakta was currently favoring as her main attack.

They’re brought the Necromancer down through the ruins of her former castle; Horace and his parallel Eo had managed to work together to lure her onto an unstable section of flooring before Danny had spun up and dropped a half-ton of ice on her head. The impact had been exacerbated by the vacuum Tait herself had managed to create beneath Slakta to implode her into it, and they were currently standing in the crater that the impact had caused.

But it hadn’t been _enough_.

Slakta had grabbed hold of Eo and dragged him down with her as the remains of the castle collapsed. She’d torn his spirit out of the corpse, too, and now the pale shade of Eo traded blows with Horace not far away, using a knife Horace himself had gifted his Parallel. Tait, for her part, hadn’t been quick enough to block the first volley of Blightning, and she could feel it eat further away at the skin of her face as she grimaced - she’d deadened her nerve endings with Void magic, but being able to breathe through her molars was a bit disconcerting and she couldn’t see out of that eye anymore. Danny wasn’t doing much better, the hand not clutching his staff being the only thing holding his intestines inside while he sent a volley of ice spikes toward Slakta. Tait had done her best to deaden his pain too, but Void magic didn’t heal and they were both dead people walking.

A wild yell and a thunderous crack of lightning heralded Primus’ re-entry into the fight - she hadn’t seen where he’d landed when the castle fell, but the dusty state of his robes suggested that wherever it had been, he’d had to dig himself out of it first. The blue-white of his lightning was too bright to look at, with bolts of it crackling in a halo around his form as he opened himself to the Lightning and Tait shielded her eyes as she looked away. The light let her see the area around them clearly, though, which was a mixed blessing. Eo was currently the only active spirit, but Tait could see debris moving like some of Slakta’s undead servants had survived the castle’s collapse.

On the side of the Summoners, Horace appeared to be immolating the spirit of Eo while holding a familiar knife in his gut, face twisted with pain. Tait sent a wave of Void magic almost carelessly his way as she continued to take stock, and he raised his staff in thanks. Of the five of them, only Tait and Danny had declined to bring their parallels - she wasn’t even sure Danny had one - and of the three they’d started with, only Viridia of Bloom remained. She and Messorium - the Bloom Summoner - were making their way over to Tait as Primus continued his barrage.

Tait bobbed her head at the shorter Summoner and Parallel as they arrived, huffing for breath. “I don’t think us’ll ‘in,” she slurred at them, her missing cheek making speech difficult, and Messorium’s lips tightened as she followed Tait’s gaze to look at the others.

“I don’t think we can _kill_ her,” she agreed, reluctantly.

Tait’s eyes snapped to the green-robed woman. As Summoner of the Void planet, she could read the spaces between words easily - and Messorium’s reluctance spoke volumes. “'ou kno’ another 'ay to 'in?” she demanded, actually taking a step towards Messorium.

Viridia shrank away with her eyes fixed on the ruin of Tait’s face, but Messorium held her ground. “The Web of Life,” she enunciated clearly, holding her hands out before her as Viridia grabbed her staff.

Between Messorium’s hands hung a deceptively delicate weaving of Bloom magic. Tait couldn’t follow its whole complexity because it slid her Void magic off like oil on water but it made sense that Life magic would be the counter to Death magic. Each strand of Bloom was no wider than a single hairsbreadth, and many were smaller, and yet Tait could almost swear she saw improbably small animals following its lengths, flowing in and around and through the Web.

She looked up at Messorium. “'ere did 'uo g’t ths?” she asked, fascinated.

Messorium didn’t look up from the Web. “All Bloom Summoners are taught to make the Web - it teaches us how living things interact, and how our magic affects the flow of the world.” She took a deep breath, and Tait was suddenly struck with a deep foreboding. “But it’s just a thought exercise. We’re taught to anchor it to our hands like so,” she nodded to the small Web before her, “but I can’t make a Web free-form. Especially not one large enough to trap Slakta in - it’s a Web, not a net. To weave something like that, I’d need anchors…”

She trailed off, and Tait felt what was left of her jaw set. Looking around, she could see Danny and Horace beginning to make their way over to them as well. Horace looked pale, and a large burn mark on his robes was centered over where Eo’s knife had gone in; Danny, for his part, looked to be holding on through a combination of stubbornness and spite. His hand wasn’t holding his guts in anymore only because he’d frozen a sheet of ice over the injury, and Tait could see his organs beginning to blacken in the cold. Neither of them were much longer for this world than Tait herself was, and when they died Slakta would use their corpses as playthings.

If she was still able to do so.

“Use us to tr'p her,” she said, pointing between Horace, Danny, and herself. Danny’s eyes focused sharply on Messorium as Horace finally joined their little group, and all three of them politely ignored the sounds of Viridia throwing up as she caught a good look at Danny’s stomach.

“Would it work?” he demanded, cutting off Horace as the taller man opened his mouth.

Messorium let the Web lapse as she spread her hands. “It’s the best idea I’ve got.” She looked from Danny to Tait to Horace in turn, eyes serious. “But you must understand - as the anchor points for the web, you’d be trapped here with her. Forever.”

Tait didn’t even think twice. “Don’t c’re. Pl'n’t 'nd p'ple s'fe,” she said, taking a step forward. Her son, Calm Cal, was a bit young for the job but she’d taught him what she could and the rest he’d have to learn though experience. Her Parallel, Sylvia, would take care of him and help him for as long as possible; it was the whole reason Tait had elected to leave her behind on the Void planet, after all. It hurt to think Cal would grow up without her, but as much as Tait wished to be there to watch over her son as he grew, she had the responsibility to more than 30 million people on the Void planet to keep them safe from Slakta. Above all else, her people had to come first.

“M’ daughter’s got this well in hand on Fire,” Horace agreed, shooting a dangerous look to where Slakta and Primus were still trading bolt for bolt, “and I owe that bitch for Eo. Count on me.”

Danny leaned over and spat on the floor. “Next unlucky bastard who taps the Water planet’s in for a big surprise,” he said, with an almost grim kind of satisfaction, “but I’m in. Nothing good ever came from messing with the dead, and that shit stops here.”

Messorium nodded, and took her staff back gently from the still-shaky Viridia. “This will be easiest if you can circle her, but I’ll start in three minutes regardless of whether you’re in optimal position or not.” She paused for a moment, then bowed to each of them. “May the light of the Continuum shine upon your sacrifice.”

_“Don’t think the Continuum’s gonna shine where we’re about to go."_

Danny’s comment was clearly meant for their ears only, but whatever Horace’s reaction Tait refused to acknowledge the sentiment as she turned to start making her way around to Slakta’s other side. The shortest Summoner wasn’t wrong, of course, but dwelling on it was a waste of precious time they didn’t have; as the most mobile, she was going to try and make for the further corner of a triangle and every second counted.

As she broke into a stumbling run over the broken pieces of castle that littered the crater, dodging around the heavily damaged but still somehow mobile undead, she reached out along the bond she’d established so long ago with Sylvia. She could feel her Parallel’s surprise and consternation as the channel opened, but now was not the time for questions.

_Summoner! But-_

_No time, Sylvia. I’ve got less than three minutes._

Tait hesitated for a moment, before plunging onward; doubt was not a kindness. _I’m not coming back._

Grief washed down the bond, enough to make her breath catch in her throat and tears sting at her eye. _Are you sure?_

Tait’s heart broke at the desperation that colored the words. _Yes. It’s the only way to save our planet._

She could feel Sylvia pulling herself together, drawing a barrier over the negative emotions that threatened to overwhelm the bond. _It has been an honor, my Summoner._

Tait ignored the formal words of leave-taking, instead shoving as much of the love she felt for her son and her Parallel through the bond as she could. Memories, too - holding Cal for the first time, her view of the bonding ceremony, the way she felt the first time she’d kissed Sylvia. It wasn’t enough, not for her son and not for the love of her life, but it was all she could give.

 _Make sure Cal knows_ , she said softly before releasing her end of the bond.

For the first time in forty years, Tait was alone in her head as she stumbled the last few feet into place for the weaving. She could feel the current of Void rising through her, inviting her to drown in its depths as she left her humanity behind, but with an effort of will she ignored it. Sylvia had kept her tethered to herself and her humanity for all these years, she _would_ keep hold on to her identity for these last few seconds alone.

Tait heard Slakta begin to scream as the first loop of Bloom magic settled around her, and grinned with bloody teeth.

_Worth it._


End file.
